Seller Tricked Us - Is this legal?

[hector3123]

We signed a contract to purchase ($700k) home and entered into escrow. The home inspection showed a lot of repairs, so we decided to cancel the contract. My realtor sent “Cancellation of Contract” to the seller.

The seller called us back saying that they are willing to fix the repairs if we are interested in moving forward. We decided to move forward and ordered an appraisal. The appraisal came at $660 and now the seller is not happy. Our contract stated that if the appraisal comes lower than the contract price, we will pay an additional $10k over the appraised value. In this case, it is $660+$10=$670. Now seller is trying to use the cancellation notice sent by us earlier against us.

Seller’s agent’s response after appraisal: “As you're aware the Buyer cancelled this escrow on 12/23/2021. If your Buyer would like to resurrect this transaction the Seller is willing to at $700.”

Buyer’s agent’s defense: “You are correct that we sent in a cancellation on 12/23/2021. However, you reached out via phone and asked us what we could do to keep the transaction going. In "Good Faith" we retracted our cancellation. I have an email correspondence with you from on Jan 7th stating "We are back in play with this file". We conducted the appraisal to proceed with the file. We provided the lender everything needed to prepare for loan docs. So to reiterate, the cancellation was not finalized AND was retracted. Technically, the seller would have to abide by the contractual obligation of the RPA and honor $670,000 for the purchase price.”

Seller’s Response Back: Seller added their signature to the cancellation notice that we sent them by 1 month ago. Told us that the contract is canceled.

Is this legal? Can the seller back out just like that after all of the activities we did?

[disneysteve]

You’ve made multiple posts about the same issue. Please stick to one thread and stop starting new ones.

I highly recommend you lean in to your realtor and attorney, not a bunch of strangers on the internet. And then only you can decide if you are willing to proceed with this transaction. If the seller is being that difficult, that seems like a big red flag to me.

[Jluke]

The realtors should have known how to handle a low appraisal. Did anyone consider getting another appraisal - at the sellers expense?

what do you think the sellers are going to do now - put the house back up for sale? Not sell it?

I would check the paperwork on the cancellation as usually these things are time sensitive and the sellers signature may have been applied too late. Hopefully they didn’t back date.

only you and your realtor know if this is a red flag or a one-off with the sellers.

I am not a real estate expert by any means. Bought twice, sold once.

good luck.

[myrdale]

You signed a cancellation order.

Sure you worked something out verbally (prove it), and you sent an email. So what? Do you having anything in writing from the seller or their agent saying they accepted your retraction?

If not, I am siding with the seller.

EDIT:

I should have read your other post first before responding.

Per this thread: https://www.savingadvice.com/forums/...yer-in-writing

Your contract said you had 14 days to do the appraisal. You didn't conduct it until day 20. What if you dragged this out another 6 months and the price dropped by 50%? You still have a contract saying it has to be within 14 days.

Again I am going to side with the seller.

[mumof2]

Well I would walk away, big red flags with this seller and their realestate agents is working in their interests not yours...so look else where, let someone else deal with them